Community Outreach report for 2023

PiP’s community room is fulfilling its remit so well, and continues to grow in popularity, we have continued to provide a space for The You Trust who help with housing  as well as the NHS Midwives, and grown our regular bookings to include groups from social prescribing, the deaf community group and a weekly chess club, as well as becoming a regular meeting space for the  Koru project and The Teaching Alliance for Dorset Special Schools. We also welcome our local community for birthday parties, social gatherings, baby showers and much more.

We also host a weekly Park Run on Saturday that is hugely popular and a Junior Park Run on Sundays! Finally our community book swap is hugely popular and we champion local artists!

Our Community Outreach

We have continued to expand our community outreach for all ages and  now include opportunities for people to engage with a more digital approach as well as supporting families and individuals with diversionary activities.

October began with Halloween and a ghost hunt around the great field.  Families were able to join in  fun activities, as well as enjoy arts and craft in the community room

Our objective was to enable families from Damers first School that may not be able to enjoy a Christmas lunch together, to have a full Christmas meal and a fun afternoon, this has been kindly supported by Waitrose, and this Year by Dorchester Rotary.  Sandra Scott (family worker) invited the families and  35 people in total (20 children, 15 adults) booked for the wonderful lunch.  There was a great atmosphere as families arrived.

Sandra had grouped them together, knowing the families that were also friends.   Colouring and activities were on each table.  Lunch was served by our wonderful volunteers making sure that each family had a full Christmas meal with all the trimmings.  Once dessert and mince pies had been enjoyed we arranged for a visit from Father Christmas. The Lions Club had kindly donated a range of presents which Sandra wrapped and allocated to each child.    Each child also received a party bag donated by Nature Art Kids and a quilt from Linus Project.

“I just wanted to thank you for our wonderful Christmas dinner experience yesterday it was honestly such a wonderful, festive and beautiful experience and one that my body mind and soul needed, I have felt very flat, tired and run down after studying so much and then looking after a poorly E and B (and I then became poorly myself) it was such a nice and very unusual experience to be looked after and cooked for for a few hours and the children had a wonderful time too, they were so thrilled to meet Father Christmas and had such fun playing with their presents and snuggling with their blankets when they got home”.

 

Linking up with Dorchester Town Council, we hosted Egg Decorating in the community room ahead of the great egg rolling competition on the Great Field.   We also offered an Easter Hunt around the great field in the morning, helping families to have some fun together.  This event was great fun and run by our fabulous volunteers.

 

Teenage Hang out day April 23

The weather stayed on our side and we were able to host a Holiday hangout day for 11 – 14 year olds in partnership with Dorchester Town Council.  Over 100 young people booked for this free event on the great field.  We provided a hot meal to all the children registered with free school meals and offered a BBQ style lunch.  With lots of activities like festival style arts and crafts, henna tattoo’s, workshops on how to make stage make up wounds, as well as football, sumo suits and light up inflatables, lots of fun was had by in the end, over 150 children.

Following on from the success of last year, we continued to host lunch time free music with a difference.  Local musicians and singers perform and we invite anyone to come and enjoy a picnic on the Great Field and be entertained.  All the musicians perform for free.  Between 80 – 150 people of all ages attended each session, bringing picnic chairs and mats and enjoyed sharing lunch with friends and family. A wide range of talented musicians performed including Dr Jazz, Franz and Sophie, and Nick Capaldi.

The Great Field hosted a wonderful celebration for The King’s Coronation which coincided with the Lions Family Fun Day. The Great Field was packed with families enjoying a range of activities and we provided cake for everyone as well as pin the jewel on the King’s Crown. Nothe Fort artillery attended, complete with cannon fire and impressive uniforms, it was a brilliant day!

We ran Children’s holiday Clubs in December, April and August this year.  Run by an experienced family worker, primary school teacher and  3 wonderful volunteers, the clubs provide a safe and engaging place for the most disadvantage children in our locality, during the holidays, ensuring they are well fed (hot lunch provided every day), and engaged with fun activities and play.  All the children that attended were part of the Summer in Dorset Scheme and required a passcode to qualify for the free place, ensuring that we reached the most in need families.  Places were offered to all schools in Dorset.

We offered  20 places each session.  And all sessions were fully booked.  This summer we were able to offer a forest school day at The Prince of Wales School with the children enjoy all kinds of outdoor learning and fun.

Our free Senior Social remains an integral part of the community outreach at PiPs.  Run by our fantastic volunteer Fiona each month we welcome our more senior members of the community to come for Free tea, coffee and cake, but more importantly some wonderful chat and a great deal of laughter.  These sessions are popular with between 10 – 16 people each month, offering an opportunity to interact and avoid loneliness and isolation.  We have been delighted to see AGE UK bringing people to the sessions and introducing them to the community at PiPs.

We provide free fun art sessions for 5 to 10-year-olds twice a month.  These stay and play sessions, for parents to engage with children and share in a common activity, promoting communication and time spent together having fun and engaging in art-based activities.  These have moved from monthly to fortnightly due to the popularity and the generosity of Art in Poundbury in partnership with Parkers Estate Agents who kindly sponsor the sessions.

This wonderful outreach provides a diversionary activity for more vulnerable or isolated parents, carers and seniors who enjoyed coming together to share a common goal and get creative with clay.  They made some fabulous things which were displayed in the community room for everyone to enjoy.

“these sessions were relaxing, calming and great for meeting new people”

“helped with my confidence, talking and meeting new people”

This new initiative gives a monthly home to Dorchester IT who are on hand to help with any digital questions and queries, people bring their own phones or tablets and can get expert help on the things that would make a difference to their lives. Helping with how to make doctors appointments, how to use Apps and social media have all featured in these sessions which are fully funded by The M&S community fund.

Regular people have returned monthly to continue to improve skills and knowledge, we hope to be able to continue these sessions in the future.

One of our favourite days of the week is Saturday mornings when the Great Field buzzes with runners of all ages and abilities with dogs, push chairs, sometimes in fancy dress, what ever the weather!

 

None of the above would be possible without our local community, volunteers, committed community funders, and PiP and AET staff, thank you so much!